Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Grinderman Experience

It was a nice and cool Friday afternoon. I just happened to be off and running errands. Was out on the south side of town looking at some used putters at ProLink and thought to myself……….. Man I am getting very hungry.

Asked around on where to go and one suggestion came up that I’ve been meaning to for the past seven years…………….. Grinderman.

To my knowledge, Grinderman does not have a webpage outside of their Facebook site.

510 E Pawnee St
Wichita, KS 67211
(316) 264-3462

A quick look at the menu of sandwiches

The place specializes in sandwiches. Is open seven days a week (M-Sat: 10:30 – 8 pm and Sun 11 – 7 pm). Make sure you only take cash because that’s all they accept. As Randy Moss says, “Straight Cash Homey”

I’ve had many friends go there for lunch and literally for the better part of the decade I’ve been told to try it out. Well Good Friday, I made sure I had some good lunch. Looking at their menu, it’s an assortment of different sandwiches and all sorts of sides to get. For $2 more, you get a platter of food that includes more sides. I figured why not because I noticed one of the sides was “deviled eggs” and it’s well documented my love for deviled eggs.

Browsing through the list of sandwiches, I went with my favorite sandwich of all time: The Reuben. Total ran up to be around $9-10. Pretty expensive for an average lunch but you could easily cut that down by ordering their half sandwich and just one side. I pigged out because who knows the last time I’ll make it out to Grinderman.

Food came out very quickly and the sandwich looked fantastic; the sides not so much. I first dove into the deviled eggs and once again the old age adage of “Don’t Order Deviled Eggs at a Restaurant” held true. The egg was pretty hard as if it had been sitting in a fridge all day which it might have been. The chips were just regular plain chips, the pickle was pretty warm and soggy and the cookies didn’t look appealing so I passed. Seriously if you go, just order the one side and save yourself the money. Next up was the sandwich………. That alone made the lunch worth the price of admission. The bread wasn’t stale or hard. It was just right in between too soft and too hard; aka just right. I’ve had Reuben’s at many different bars and restaurants because that’s my “go to” sandwich and I’m not even much of a sandwich fan. But I must say this Reuben was one of the better ones I’ve had in Wichita. I think that speaks for itself.

I’ll say the place is quaint and has the atmosphere you’d expect for the location it’s in. The lady at the counter was extremely nice. If you’re in the area, give it a try. I would go again if it was close enough but since I don’t travel in that area much my chances of being a repeat customer are low on the scale.